Coronavirus: Saints basketball team owner says he could lose his home due to Covid-19

A Wellington businessman is scared he may lose his home as New Zealand prepares to go into a month-long lockdown.

Nick Mills, who owns the Saints basketball team, Spruce Goose cafe and several other hospitality businesses said the situation is unbelievably bad.

"We could lose absolutely everything, if we don't see some decent help from the Government."

He said after years of struggling to get enough staff, he will have to lay off some members - which he said was absolutely heartbreaking.

"The phone just doesn't stop, it's stressful for them, they've got rent to pay and a lot of them are at university."

He was mostly worried for those with mortgages and kids to feed.

"As sad and as horrible as it [laying people off] is ... you've got no idea how disheartening and disappointing this is."

Although Mills stands to lose a significant amount of revenue, he had no doubt the Government's raised Covid-19 status was the right decision.

Schools and non-essential services across New Zealand will be closed for at least the next four weeks after the Government put the country in nationwide lockdown to try to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Today the Government announced they would almost double how much it would spend on its wage subsidy scheme as well as freezing rent increases.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said many New Zealanders will not be able to work over the lockdown period so their priority was to ensure they would still receive some form of income.

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Hospitality New Zealand's Wellington president is welcoming the Government's move to shut down non-essential services despite the heavy toll it will take on businesses.

Matt McLaughlin said it's been an emotional rollercoaster and there's no doubt this will be extremely tough for hospitality operators.

McLaughlin, who owns several popular Wellington bars, including Dirty Little Secret told the Herald that it was 100 per cent the right decision, but it still hurts.

"Our industry is absolutely in the fight for our lives, but we are in this together."

He said this will be extremely tough for hospitality operators, as well as staff but there was nothing they could do.

McLaughlin also believed the Government had made the right decision and said there was some relief by having a final decision.

"Obviously I'm trying to work through what this means for my business whilst also keeping my family safe, so yeah, she's an emotional rollercoaster."